EMEA Channel Anticipating Shift to Software-Defined Networking, Brocade Research Reveals

DUBAI, United Arab Emirates, 24th November 2014 - Over half of EMEA channel partners and systems integrators believe that Software-Defined Networking (SDN) and Network Functions Virtualisation (NFV) will be significant trends within the next two years, according to new research from Brocade (NASDAQ:BRCD). The survey found that 54 percent of EMEA respondents expect SDN and NFV to be a significant trend within the next 24 months. Eighteen percent of those surveyed in EMEA are already deploying SDN and NFV technologies, with 62 percent either currently evaluating SDN and NFV solutions or planning to do so within the next year.

The research, which surveyed over 230 Brocade distributors and resellers from across Europe, the Middle East, and Africa (EMEA), also explored the issues expected to be among their customers’ top priorities in 2015. The top three trends are expected to be virtualisation (72 percent), Bring Your Own Device (43 percent), and SDN (30 percent). The biggest challenges for customers were revealed to be complexity (46 percent) and bandwidth provisioning (46 percent), suggesting that 2015 will continue to bring opportunities for partners that can help organisations simplify their IT infrastructures while increasing connectivity.

The report also examines the top factors influencing partners’ choice of vendor. Technology differentiation (67 percent) and the vendor’s vision and strategy (42 percent) were the top factors cited by respondents, suggesting that the channel remains focused on providers that can deliver innovation in the long-term.

Marcus Jewell, Vice President, EMEA, Brocade, commented, “It is clear from this research that our channel partners are looking to the future and are focusing on building the technology solutions that their customers will need in the years to come, in particular SDN and NFV. With customers prioritising virtualisation and BYOD, it’s only natural that complexity and bandwidth are their top challenges. These findings support what we are seeing within our channel programmes. For instance, in 2014, half of the Brocade® Vyatta® vRouter’s total sales were completed within the channel, showing that partners are already preparing their end-customers to virtualise their networks with the right technology and programme support.”

“In 2015, Brocade’s focus will continue to be on helping our partners in EMEA deliver better experiences for their customers through existing networks and helping them manage the transition to the New IP,” said Jewell. “To deliver on both cloud and on-premise solutions following heavy investment in software by carriers, service providers, and others, we’ll be giving partners the building blocks to support the growing interest in SDN and NFV.”

Key findings in EMEA included:

•SDN and NFV are already significant industry trends. 18 percent of companies surveyed are now deploying SDN, 33 percent are currently evaluating plans to adopt SDN, and 29 percent plan to do so in the next 12 months. Only 18 percent have no future plans to consider SDN or NFV.
•Virtualisation and BYOD will be top customer priorities. Virtualisation (72 percent) and BYOD (43 percent) were identified as the top customer trends in EMEA, with SDN/NFV following in third (30 percent). Fifty-three percent of EMEA partners think that more than 75 percent of customer data centres will be virtualised within two years.
•EMEA partners are focused on innovation and vendor strategy. While technology differentiation were cited as the most important factor in choosing a vendor (67 percent), vision and strategy came in second, with 42 percent listing it as a top factor, along with customer demand (39 percent).
•The EMEA channel will prioritise growth in 2015. Sixty-four percent of companies surveyed said that their current growth strategy was a top priority, followed by upgrading and expanding tech competencies (38 percent) and expanding into new verticals (32 percent).
•Concerns remain around complexity. EMEA respondents reported that complexity and bandwidth (both 46 percent) were the biggest challenges related to networking requirements, followed by CapEx investment in IT (33 percent).

Methodology

The research, conducted by Brocade via an anonymous online SurveyGizmo survey, was cast among a wide range of individuals at partner organisations. The majority of respondents were from technical (63 percent) and sales (27 percent) job functions, with the remaining respondents in executive level (2 percent) and marketing (8 percent) functions.